The Las Vegas Raiders “dodged a big bullet” with the back injury starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffered in Sunday’s win against the New England Patriots, coach Josh McDaniels said Monday. Here’s what you need to know:
“There was concern yesterday that it was an internal issue, so we did a bunch of scans yesterday and last night and it seems like we’ve dodged a big bullet in that regard. So, that’s good news,” McDaniels said. “We’re still doing a couple of things this morning and we’ll kind of make sure we do all the right things here as we go forward, but the prognosis is a lot better than it might have otherwise been.”
The Raiders have already shown they’ll err on the side of caution when it comes to Garoppolo’s health. Following offseason foot surgery in March, they held the quarterback out until training camp. When he suffered a concussion in Week 3, they held him out in Week 4 despite him returning to practice that week and pushing to play.
While Garoppolo’s back injury may not be as serious as initially feared, it’s likely they’ll do the same here. It helps that they’re going into a matchup with a miserable Bears team that may be without Fields. It’s unclear whether it would be Aidan O’Connell, who started in Week 4, or Brian Hoyer, who took over for Garoppolo on Sunday, who would step in to start if Garoppolo is out, but the Raiders have reason to believe they’d still have a good chance to win either way.
McDaniels will have to choose between rookie O’Connell and Hoyer. O’Connell started in Week 4 against the Chargers when Garoppolo was out with a concussion and improved as the game went on but held on to the ball too long and had two fumbles. McDaniels said he went with the rookie because he had a whole week to prepare in practice.
The following week, McDaniels went back to Hoyer, his former Patriots backup, as the No. 2 quarterback because of his experiences. Hoyer came into the game Sunday to boos from the home crowd — they were mesmerized by O’Connell’s preseason success — and Hoyer did enough for the Raiders to hold on to their lead and win. He had the Raiders’ longest pass of the season, a 48-yarder to Tre Tucker, and running back Josh Jacobs said plays like that could open up the running game
Hoyer led Las Vegas on two scoring drives in the second half of Sunday’s win. Garoppolo appeared to have been hurt on the team’s final drive of the second quarter and was later taken to a local hospital.
Hoyer, who the Patriots released in March, tossed for 102 yards, completing 6-of-10 passes.
